Braid: From pipeline to Wall and Fildebrandt, a day that went all wrong

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011 PAGE A1
EDMONTON, AB. FEBRUARY 22, 2011 - Stock photo of the Alberta Legislature. Scrum with party leaders at the Alberta Legislature after the throne speech to begin the spring sitting of the Legislature.(SHAUGHN BUTTS/EDMONTON JOURNAL) legislative building

Thursday was one bad day for Alberta politicians, both on the left and right.

First, Brad Wall is leaving as premier of Saskatchewan. He’s the idol of many Alberta conservatives.

The United Conservative Party was looking forward to a cross-border alliance to fight the federal carbon tax, with Wall in the vanguard.

Now the new UCP leader, whoever that may be, won’t have the help and support of the most successful western provincial conservative since the late Ralph Klein ran Alberta.

For Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, the day was even worse.

Just as she was celebrating the start of construction on Line 3, the B.C. New Democrats went ahead with their vow to block the Kinder Morgan pipeline, going to court and also promising to stall approvals.

B.C. says only three of eight permits required for major construction have been issued. The work is supposed to start next month.

If it doesn’t, Notley must get tough.

Being nice doesn’t work with those coastal New Democrats, many of them Notley’s old friends, including new Premier John Horgan.

Whatever Notley chooses to do, she has to divorce herself from the B.C. New Democrats. They’re poison to any hope she has of re-election.

Finally, conservatives took a second knock from one of their own, Derek Fildebrandt.

The MLA has embarrassed the new United Conservative Paty by renting out his taxpayer-subsidized Edmonton apartment via Airbnb.

This housing-subsidy system is like a little volcano that erupts in scandal every generation.

The last time it got really hot was in 1992, when several ministers and MLAs were found to be using housing allowances to buy houses or rentals, even when they had homes in ridings only 30 minutes from the legislature.

Fildebrandt might claim historical ignorance — he was only seven at the time. But the principle seems pretty clear for any generation.

He’s obviously entitled to a housing subsidy for accommodation in Edmonton. His riding is Strathmore-Brooks, a long way from the capital.

But to rent an apartment, take the subsidy, and then sub-let the unit when he isn’t in the capital — that comes across as hypocritical, especially from a politician who vows to squeeze every public penny until it squeaks.

Roundly blasted, Fildebrandt said he’ll donate the rental income to help pay down the provincial debt.

He still insisted he did nothing wrong, but by Thursday evening he apologized and took “leave” from his post as co-finance critic for the UCP.

Ric McIver now gets the whole job, at least until a permanent party leader is elected and decides on Fildebrandt’s future.

This is not the kind of publicity a new party needs.

If you’d asked me two days ago which of 87 MLAs would be least likely to do something like this, I would have instantly named Derek Fildebrandt.

He was the single most outspoken Wildrose/UCP opponent of government spending and boondoggles.

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation argued against misuse of housing subsidies, he worked there.

He blasted ex-premier Alison Redford’s $22 cup of coffee (actually, it was a pot of hotel coffee.)

He basically accused another ex-premier, the late Jim Prentice, for arranging the destruction of his federal expense records. It wasn’t true.

Fildebrandt famously scolded the Ontario Liberals as world-leading wastrels when Premier Kathleen Wynne was in the legislature visitors gallery.

Since he was first elected in 2015, every vibe from Fildebrandt has been about cutting spending, getting companies and individuals off the government dole, reducing deficits and debt.

He may not have violated legislature rules (they’re a lot older than Airbnb), but there’s a spirit behind those rules. When people think that spirit has been ignored, a politician is in big trouble.

Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark said:

“The letter of the law is important. The spirit of the law is just as important. The spirit of the law should be that no MLA should benefit personally from a tax dollar.”

This kind of thing tends to taint MLAs of all parties. Altogether, it was not much of a day, either for the UCP or the NDP.

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